This document has been archived and replaced by NSF 14-020
(http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf14020).
TITLE: Dear Colleague Letter - Designing Materials to Revolutionize and
Engineer our Future (DMREF)
DATE: 12/3/12
NSF 13-025
Dear Colleague Letter - Designing Materials to Revolutionize and
Engineer our Future (DMREF)
December 3, 2012
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is excited to bring to your
attention our second year of a national materials initiative,
Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF),
which is NSF's way of participating in the Materials Genome Initiative
(MGI) for Global Competitiveness [1]. MGI recognizes the importance of
materials science to the well-being and advancement of society and
aims to "deploy advanced materials at least twice as fast as possible
today, at a fraction of the cost." As a national initiative, MGI
integrates all aspects of the materials continuum, including materials
discovery, development, property optimization, systems design and
optimization, certification, manufacturing, and deployment, with each
employing the toolset developed within the materials innovation
infrastructure. The toolset will synergistically integrate advanced
computational methods and visual analytics with data-enabled
scientific discovery and innovative experimental techniques so as to
revolutionize our approach to materials science and engineering.
NSF will support DMREF through well-coordinated activities involving
the Directorates of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS),
Engineering (ENG) and Computer & Information Science and Engineering
(CISE). Within MPS the Divisions of Chemistry (CHE), Materials
Research (DMR) and Mathematical Sciences (DMS) will participate in
DMREF. The Divisions of Civil, Mechanical, Manufacturing Innovation
(CMMI), Division of Electrical, Communication & Cyber Systems (ECCS)
and Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems
(CBET) in ENG will also participate. All the divisions of CISE will
engage in the DMREF initiative.
For the second year of DMREF, NSF is interested in activities that
accelerate materials discovery and development by building the
fundamental knowledge base needed to progress towards designing and
making a material with a specific and desired function or property
from first principles. Also of interest to NSF is research that seeks
to advance fundamental understanding of materials across length and
time scales to elucidate the effects of microstructure, surfaces, and
coatings on the properties and performance of engineering materials.
The ultimate goal is to control material properties through design via
the establishment of computational interrelationships between
composition, processing, structure, properties, performance, and
process control, validated and verified through measurement and
experimentation. This requires new data analytic tools and statistical
algorithms; advances in predictive modeling that leverage machine
learning, data mining, and sparse approximation; data infrastructure
that is accessible, extensible, scalable, and sustainable; and new
collaborative capabilities for managing large, complex, heterogeneous,
distributed data supporting materials design, synthesis, and
longitudinal study.
It is anticipated that many proposed efforts will bridge program and
divisional interests and that these will be coordinated, co-reviewed,
and funded by the programs and divisions as appropriate. The
complexity and challenge of activities addressed by this initiative
require a transformative approach to discovering and developing new
materials, optimizing and/or predicting properties of materials, and
informing the design of material systems. Accordingly, the proposed
research must be a collaborative and iterative process where
computation guides experiments and theory, while experiments and
theory advance computation. The proposal should provide a plan for
enhanced data management that ensures transparency, data-sharing and
open source software. While not required, ties with industry, national
laboratories, engineering partners, or other organizations are
encouraged. If there are strong collaborations with industry, please
see the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)
program solicitation, which can be used in conjunction with this
effort [2].Because this DMREF approach emphasizes a more integrated
approach to materials research, cross-disciplinary educational
activities are encouraged, as are public outreach activities.
DMR, CHE, DMS, CMMI, CBET, ECCS and all the divisions in CISE invite
proposals based on MGI principles in FY 13. DMREF proposals must be
submitted to the above divisions in accordance with the applicable
submission window 15 January to 15 February 2013. The title of the
proposal should begin with "DMREF". Awards made in FY12 by ENG and DMR
can be viewed at [1]http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125712&.
Participants interested in submitting proposals are strongly
encouraged to first contact one of the following program officers:
CHE, Timothy Patten ([2]tpatten@nsf.gov); DMR, Daniele
Finotello([3]dfinotel@nsf.gov), Linda Sapochak ([4]lsapocha@nsf.gov),
or Diana Farkas ([5]dfarkas@nsf.gov); DMS, Michael Steuerwalt
([6]msteuerw@nsf.gov); CMMI, Martin Dunn ([7]mldunn@nsf.gov), or
Mary M. Toney ([8]mtoney@nsf.gov); CBET, Ashok Sangani
([9]asangani@nsf.gov); ECCS, John Zavada ([10]jzavada@nsf.gov),
Dimitris Pavlidis ([11]dpavlidi@nsf.gov); CISE, Ralph Wachter
([12]rwachter@nsf.gov).
We are excited by the opportunities created by the national Materials
Genome Initiative and the contribution made to it by this joint
venture.
Celeste Rohlfing Thomas Peterson Farnam Jahanian
Assistant Director (Acting) Assistant Director Assistant Director
Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering
National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer & Information
Science & Engineering National Science Foundation
[1] Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) forGlobal Competitiveness
[13]http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/mate
rials_genome_initiative-final.pdf
[2] Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI)
[14]http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf12513
References
1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/
materials_genome_initiative-final.pdf
2. http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf12513
3. http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125712&
4. mailto:tpatten@nsf.gov
5. mailto:dfinotel@nsf.gov
6. mailto:lsapocha@nsf.gov
7. mailto:dfarkas@nsf.gov
8. mailto:msteuerw@nsf.gov
9. mailto:mldunn@nsf.gov
10. mailto:mtoney@nsf.gov
11. mailto:asangani@nsf.gov
12. mailto:jzavada@nsf.gov
13. mailto:dpavlidi@nsf.gov
14. mailto:rwachter@nsf.gov
15. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/
materials_genome_initiative-final.pdf
16. http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf12513